Pensioner jailed after stabbing man in unprovoked attack at Derbyshire pub

Ian Magee stabbed his victim in the neck with a pocketknife at the Standing Order pub in Derby city centre on 6 April 2023. The 48-year-old was given life-saving treatment and survived the attack.

Magee, of Shalfleet Drive, Alvaston, pleaded not guilty to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm but a jury at Derby Crown Court took less than two hours to find him guilty in November last year.

The 61-year-old, appearing at Leicester Crown Court, was jailed for eight years – with an extended four-year licence period.

Explaining the impact the stabbing had on him, the victim told how he had been left depressed and suffering repeated dreams of being killed.

He said: “This incident has caused me to feel depressed. I don't really go anywhere anymore. I don't go to town or pubs. I don't see the people I used to see anymore. Since I was stabbed, I have lost feeling in the jaw area and neck on the left side which is where I was stabbed – and I can't feel my bottom lip or my chin.

“I have nightmares all the time and I can't sleep at night. I wake up every 5 or 10 minutes. I have been seen to be shaking in my sleep. I dream about being stabbed, I feel a pain in my neck and then I feel like I'm on the floor and then I'm dying and then I am being shook. I don't understand it or why it has happened to me. It has changed my life.”

Temporary DC Cathryn Mansfield, who led the investigation, said: “This was an utterly appalling attack in the middle of the afternoon in a crowded city centre pub.

“For reasons that only Ian Magee knows he took a knife out his pocket and delivered a potentially fatal stab wound. There was no aggression from his victim and certainly nothing that could have warranted the violence used by Magee.

“As was heard from the victim in court the impact on him has been devastating and continues to this day. I hope that today’s sentencing brings this most horrendous chapter to a close and allows him to begin to come to terms with incident and move on from this ordeal.

“I would also like to thank the staff, customers, and first responders whose actions that day I have no doubt saved this man’s life.”